Clearing my inbox

You've come to the sweetest place on earth: no, not Hershey, Pennsylvania. It's the site devoted to endlessly going on about how great a certain newscaster is. Her name? Ms. Abbi Tatton. She co-hosts the Inside the Blogs segment on CNN's Inside Politics, and she's pretty special.

Unfortunately, as I have been explaining, I have been unable to do up-to-the-minute posts this week. I am wailing and lamenting, I assure you. Yes, I know some of you are tapping your foot and wondering why you should keep tuning in here. I can hear it now: "Tsk tsk - you know, the site Abbi Tatton Rulez doesn't miss days!" Well, those bastards at that site wouldn't know a quality post if it bit them. Sure, I sometimes take a while, but my posts are infinitely richer and more expressive of Ms. Tatton's charms.

So let's get to posting. In case you have lost track, I'm on Wednesday's show. That day, the first teaser was a pan around the back of Jacki. The second showed Ms. Tatton apparently taking some last minute notes. After the old intro, the show got to the topic of the Ohio special election. Ms. Tatton, looking utterly regal in purple, noted MyDD and its suggestion that the defeated Democratic candidate run for governor or senator. She then turned to RedState.org, which noted that despite all the money raised by bloggers, all their candidates had lost. Ms. Tatton concluded with another posting on the same site, which urged the Ohio GOP to "wake up." In her next turn, the topic was the rapid growth of the blogosphere. She highlighted Technorati, which tracks the exponential growth.

The teaser for the second segment was an under-the-table shot up at the two co-hosts. The topic was a blogger from Iraq who had been killed named Stephen Vincent. Ms. Tatton directed viewers to his blog, In the Red Zone, and also to Chrenkoff, who praised the reporting he had been doing.

The segment concluded, as had the first one, with host Joe Johns thanking the "guys." Get your eyes checked, pal.

On to Thursday. I missed the first (and apparently only) teaser - stupid, stupid! The segment started after another report, instead of right after a commercial like usual. They showed the original intro (the one with the eye); the topic was Roberts. Ms. Tatton, looking cute in baby blue, showed Ruffini and its aggregator of Roberts-related stories. Then she turned to the story about Roberts giving help to a gay rights group, noting Malcontent's comments, then introducing one, saying, "This one I love: 'Not only did he help us out, he helped us out for free.' " Oh really? You love it? Tell us, what else do you love?

Her next turn continued the storyline. She quoted Pejmanesque saying it showed he (Roberts) had a fair mind, and Ezra Klein saying his good judgment must have won out over his convictions. Ms. Tatton's third crack at the bat was devoted to Katherine Harris complaining about her photo retouching (no photo of Ms. Tatton would ever need to be retouched, and no amount of retouching could make her look bad). By the way, this was where Jacki, the co-host, made the comment about loving a good visual that I used for a post title last time. Anyway, said Ms. Tatton (who makes a great visual) displayed Zenyenta and its demand that the media stop retouching Harris's photo, and also quit putting "that ridiculous mustache on John Bolton." Then she handed it back to host Ed Henry.

The teaser for the second segment showed Ms. Tatton clearly grinning, perhaps at the newsworthiness of what had transpired immediately before. Jacki alluded to it by saying as the segment began (after the new intro), "We know exactly what bloggers are going to be talking about just a few minutes from now." When I saw this Thursday night, I had no idea what she was talking about; Friday I learned it referred to Bob Novak storming off the set in the segment immediately preceding theirs. Wait till I get to Friday's post for more.

The topic of this segment was a suit for libel against an anonymous blogger. Ms. Tatton quoted the Electronic Frontier Foundation and its argument that free speech had always included anonymous speakers. Ms. Tatton then cited the Smyrna/Clayton Issues Blog (the one involved in the suit), noting one poster's argument that the person allegedly libeled had privacy rights.

So that's this site's first double post (at least that I can remember). I'll get to Friday's show, the last ever of Inside Politics, tomorrow. Thanks for being such a patient audience. Drive home safely.